Now it is time to prepare an H-1B petition to be filed on April 1, 2017

Frequently asked questions:
How many H-1B visa will be available and how will they be allocated this time? Here is a quick summary:

Annual Cap: 65,000.

Advanced Degree Exemption: 20,000 for those who have obtained a master’s or higher degree from U.S. universities.

Higher Education and Research Exemption: unlimited for those who will work at institutions of higher education or related or affiliated nonprofit entities, nonprofit research organizations or governmental research organizations.

Guam Exemption: unlimited for those who will work in Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Chile and Singapore Treaty Set-aside: unused portion of 6,800.
Every fiscal year, 6,800 H-1B visas are set aside from the annual cap under the terms of the legislation implementing the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreements. Unused numbers in this pool are made available for H-1B use for the next fiscal year.
Since USCIS is expected to receive more than 200,000 H-1B visa petitions during the first week of April, it will use a lottery system to randomly select the petitions

USCIS will first sort out multiple or duplicate H-1B petitions filed by one employer for same employee. USCIS will deny those petitions without refunding the filing fees.

USCIS will then sort out U.S. Master’s cap petitions from non-U.S. Master’s cases and then use a lottery system to randomly select 20,000 winners.

All cases not selected as part of the U.S. Master’s lottery will be entered into the bachelor’s cap lottery system.

USCIS will reject and return all petitions that were not selected along with filing fees.